Superintendent Jon Kilgore is promoting the second Pontiac Township High School Community Café event which takes place from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. tonight in the Dr. Ronald J. Yates Memorial Library at PTHS.

Doors will be open to the high school at both Indiana and Elm Street entrances and topics of discussion include security at the school, the attendance incentive program and basic information regarding the sales tax initiative.

“Whether someone is a parent or just a community member within the district, everyone in the district contributes taxes toward the school and we want to hear from them,” said Kilgore. “We think it’s very important that the people investing their money through taxes to the school have an open opportunity to be heard and share with us. We really want to hear from all perspectives and we want to talk and answer questions.”

The first community café was held on Nov. 5, at the Pontiac Family Kitchen with 20 people in attendance for an open discussion on steps that the high school was taking to improve or increase community and parent engagement. Not long afterward, Kilgore said the high school’s community council — a majority of which are parents who attended the event — gave their feedback and suggested among other things to limit the event to an hour, to stay focused on the topics of discussion and to do less presenting and provide more time for discussion and conversation.

“For those who made it to the first event, we will have less of the formal presentations this time around,” said Kilgore. “We will be replacing that time with more opportunities for us to answer questions and provide discussion.”

The intention of the community café is to promote engagement between the community, parents and families in the school. Kilgore said as a superintendent he wants to get feedback, listen to opinions and be able to share information with the community in an effort to make the plans of the school district more transparent.

While this café event will be held at the high school, Kilgore said there are plans to hold future events at different locations throughout the area. He noted that while they had a good experience at Pontiac Family Kitchen, the council advised to make the event more accessible for people in different areas of the district by consistently changing locations.

“We welcome as many people as possible,” said Kilgore. “We would love the following for this event to grow.”